


Niles and the Royal Castle.

by Livberrypi



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Archive Warning and rating may change over time, Characters will be added as they appear in the story, M/M, probably, slow burn?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-28
Updated: 2017-07-31
Packaged: 2018-11-05 21:30:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11021970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Livberrypi/pseuds/Livberrypi
Summary: Title pretty much says it all.  Niles adapting to a new place.Edit: Postponed for now. I'm really sorry. I needed a break from writing in general, and something happened to my file that made me lose my progress. My break is over, but now I needed to remember what I wrote. :(





	1. How did this happen?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first story I am posting on here. Originally started for a friend of mine.
> 
> Well I wrote part of this chapter in two days, and wrote the other part in one day. So please let me know if something needs to be improved. Also, I haven't played that much of Fates, so please let me know if characters are OOC or if I missed any important details of a character's past.

Niles knew that he wasn’t going to live very long.

He felt it ever since he woke one day alone on the streets. He did have some hope when he found refuge with other street kids. That, however, faded quickly as it turned out that those kids were part of a group of street thieves.

However, it didn't fade out entirely. After all, they were actually really good. They'd made a lot of good memories traveling around and stealing from house. Like that one time they had one of the kids dress as a lady and they made off with some fine silk, or that other time when they made off with those diamond necklace. Or even when they went to steel the killer d.....

Actually, that one's still on trial.......

Anyway, they had good memories. It was fun while it lasted. But of course, it didn't last. They had gotten too overconfident.  He didn’t even remember who came up with the idea. One minute they were talking about their latest capper, the next they were planning their biggest event. He knew that it was a terrible idea. After all, the Norian castle was said to be filled with the royal guards.  However, that didn’t seem to at bother his family, so he went with the plan. To their credit though, at first they were doing well. They actually managed to get in without much detection. However, one of them ended up alerting a guard, and they were on the run. They were on their way out of one of the first gates when someone (he didn’t know who as they were on his right side) tripped him. He got up just in time to see the gate close up. He had been betrayed.

He somehow managed to avoid the guards that had been originally chasing the group and snuck his way to the back of the castle. At least he thought it was the back, but he didn’t know for certain. Either way, wherever he was in the castle didn’t have many guards around. He managed to duck into one of the rooms in the castle.

Able to catch his breath now, he took the time to scan his surroundings. The room he was in looked like a bedroom. A really nice bed was in the far corner of the room. It was by a window that had a plant on the sill. On the opposite of the bed, there was another door that Niles assumed to be the closet. The most notable thing about the room, however, was the desk next to the bed. Specifically, the book that was currently sitting on top of the desk. Being the only purple thing in the room, it stood out. He walked over to where the desk was and picked up the book to examine it. He guessed that it was a tome judging by the design on the cover. It was different compared to the ones he had seen before in the houses of other nobles, but it was similar enough.

“(You know, I’ve never actually gotten the chance to look inside a tome before. I wonder……)”  He opened the book to see what he assumed were words written on the book. He assumed because the book seem to be in a different language entirely. Figures.

_Footsteps_

That’s right. He was supposed to be hiding. Forgetting that he was still holding the book, Niles quickly ran into the closet and cracked the door open. Hopefully whoever it was wouldn’t stay for long.

Hopefully…..

                                                            *********

            Leo was very annoyed at the moment.

He was studying in the library when some guards burst in and told him to go to his room and wait. When he didn’t move, they practically pushed him out of the library. Apparently a group of thieves had infiltrated the castle, and the guards want to make sure that they are all gone from the premises.

“Is this really necessary?  Even if someone is here, I have one of my tomes with me,” Leo said to the guard.

“Sorry Milord, king’s orders.” Leo signed.

“Very well then.”

The guard left him as soon as he was in his room. He took a deep breath and started to figure out what he was going to do for the next hour or two. He was debating on finally clearing out his closet when he took a glance at his desk and gasped. Brynhildr was gone. He quickly walked over to his desk and searched it.

“(There’s no way someone could have stolen it. Maybe…)” Leo turned towards the closet. Wait, didn’t he close the door completely when he left? He carefully walked over to the closet and slowly went to open the door.

And nearly got hit by it as it swung open.

                                                **********

 Niles swung the door hoping that it would knock down the other person long enough for him to run. While the person managed to dodge, they were distracted enough for Niles to make a follow-up move. He quickly pinned the person to the wall, causing them to drop their bag in the process.

“Listen I don’t want trouble. I just want to leave,” He heard himself say.  However, the person (a man about his age) seemed to be distracted.

 “Give Brynhildr back.” When Niles gave him a confused look, he pointed behind him to see the book he took with him when he hid. It now laid on the floor.

“Uh...I….”

“Hey Leo, Xander said that the guards told him we could…….” Niles and the other man turned to face a young girl with blonde pigtails. The three stared at each other in dead silence for a second until the girl had processed what was going on.

“Xander, Leo needs help!” She said as she sprinted away from the door.

“(Wait, Xander? Leo? Aren’t they…..)” Niles froze.

Oh gods. He just threatened the second prince of Nohr.

Speaking of, the prince must’ve noticed that he was distracted as he quickly got a hit on the thief. As Niles reeled, he darted for the book and opened it up.

“'Honored god of all things that exist…” Niles realized that the prince was about to attack, and tried to make for the now opened door. He didn’t get very far, however, as he felt something grab his leg and pulled him back. It then slammed him against the wall. He began to try to escape.

“Try to escape, and I’ll be forced to kill you,” Niles looked up to see the prince now looking down on him and snorted.

“Why delay the inevitable?” The prince apparently wasn’t expecting this question.

“What?” Niles looked down.

“Kill me. That’s the penalty of trying to steal from the castle, right? So go ahead.” A very uneasy silence followed until the prince spoke up again.

“….What’s your name?” Niles looked back up at him.

“Huh?”

“What is your name?”

“…….”

“….Okay then…..can I call you Niles then?” Niles couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He started laughing, earning him a glare from the prince.

“What?! What’s wrong with what I just said?!” Prince Leo demanded. Niles noticed that he was slightly red. Probably not used to being laughed at by commoners. He started to say something, but stopped when he noticed a man at the door.

“Leo! Are you okay?!” The man practically yelled. Prince Leo almost instantly regained his composure.

“Oh hi Xander. I thought I heard footsteps,” He looked over his brother’s shoulder. “How many soldiers did you bring with you? My room’s not that big you know.”

“Are you kidding? A family of six would happily call a room this size home where I’m from,” Niles piped up. Bad decision. Both Prince Leo and his (scary) brother now had their full attention on him. Prince Leo’s brother glared at him.

“You! Men I…..”

“That won’t be necessary, Xander,” Prince Leo’s brother gave him a very confused look.

“Why not?” Prince Leo just smiled and signaled his brother to move to the side. When his brother complied, he pointed at one of the guards that were behind his brother.

“You. Take this man up to one of the vacant rooms.”

“Leo, what are you…..?” Prince Leo smiled.

“Xander, I want to make that man my retainer,” He said simply.

“…………..What?!!!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really like the idea of Leo giving Niles his name, but was unsure of what his old name should be. So I just called him Niles for the chapter. I hope that isn't too confusing. If it is, I'll make up a name (or take suggestions).


	2. Night 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took me longer than I thought it would. It ended up being longer than the first chapter. I had to rewrite a lot of parts, and reread a few supports in order to finish this. So I hope it came out alright.

           The prince’s older brother, of course, was not very happy with the sudden decision. After a brief argument with him, Prince Leo agreed to have a guard be posted outside of Niles’ room for at least one night. The second prince then walked with him and a guard up to what was now his room. As soon as he was shown in, Niles took the time to look around. The room was smaller than the prince’s room. However, it was still bigger than any bedroom that he has ever been in before. The contents and structure of the room were similar to those of the prince’s room, with the only exception being that the desk was noticeably further from the bed.

            “Just let the guard know if you need something, okay?” The prince asked. Niles silently stared at him in response. He had been quiet since the two princes started arguing. The prince shuffled a little.

            “Right then. Dinner will be ready in a few hours. I’ll see you then,” He said. Niles nodded and the prince excused himself. When he was gone, Niles sat on the bed and felt around it. The bed was…soft. Really soft actually. Probably the softest bed that he had ever sat on. Well… maybe not the softest. There was that time when his gang snuck into a noble’s home while the family was out. That bed was pretty soft as well. Niles hummed at the memory, and decided to turn his attention to something else. He decided to look at the closet next, and stood up to open it. Too his surprise, the door wouldn’t budge. That was very curious since, as far as he could tell, this bedroom was meant for guests. He decided to investigate and searched the room for something that would help him unlock the door. After all, there had to be a key somewhere. He gave up after spending quite a bit of time searching, and decided to try and pick the lock. He took two brooches from his pocket (will probably need to give those back later), and used them to open the door without much of a problem. He opened the door to a dark room. He didn’t have a candle in the room with him (there was enough moonlight to illuminate the main room), so he felt around the room instead. The closet turned out to be a decent sized walk-in closet, with shelves lining two of the three sides of the closet. As he reached the back of the small room, his fingers touched what seemed like a bump.

           “Hmm? What’s this?” Niles felt around the bump and realized that it was movable. He moved it to the side and went to feel what was behind it. It didn’t quite feel like a wall. In fact, it almost felt like a…

 _Knock knock._ Niles almost jumped at the sudden noise from the other room.

           “Hey! Are you in there?” A muffled voice asked. With an annoyed grunt, Niles walked back out of the closet in order to answer the door.

“Yes, I’m in here. Is there something you need?” He asked.

            “I just wanted to ask if you were going to come down for dinner,” Niles thought for a moment. He had completely forgotten about food. However, the thought of eating with the other inhabitants of the castle was…less than desirable.

            “No thank you,” He finally answered.

            “Aw. Why?” The voiced wined. Niles frowned.

            “No reason that should concern you. Good night,” He said rather gruffly. The voice murmured something in annoyance (he thinks he hears the second prince’s name) before walking away from the door. Niles signed and sat back down on the bed. He debated on going to bed for a few minutes when he heard another knock at the door.

            “Hey! I had your dinner brought up here,” He heard the voice say through the door. Niles blinked, but ultimately went and opened the door. Behind it was a familiar looking female.

            “Hello there. Just let us set up,” The female said with a smile and walked into the room with, to Niles’ surprise, three trays in her arms. Behind her, a maid with pink hair was carefully walking in with three more trays. The two set the trays down on Niles’ desk.

            “Um…Milady, is that all for me?” He asked, recognizing the girl as the one who he scared earlier. She was probably the prince’s little sister judging by her looks.

            “No. Two of them are for me and one is for the guard outside,” The princess answered before she and the maid began to move the desk.

            “Two of them are for you? So you didn’t eat either?”

            “No. I walked into my brother as he was exiting the dining hall. He asked me to check on you since he didn’t see you there.”

            “So he sent someone to check on me for him? He didn’t even show me where the dining hall was,” Niles didn’t bother with hiding how annoyed he was. The girl winced in response to his words. She looked away and muttered something around the lines of ‘Aw Leo’ before turning back to him.

            “Sorry about that. He’s…busy at this hour. He probably didn’t think of that. I can show you later if you want. But for now, let’s eat together,” Niles blinked.

            “…Why Milady? Do you have a thing for people who attack your brother?” The princess gave a surprised face.

            “What? No. I figured that you were too nervous to go to dinner. So I decided to have dinner with you to start the process of you getting used to the people here. So…,” the princess curtsied, “My name is Princess Elise. It’s nice you meet you……. Niles right?” Niles nodded.

            “Nice you meet you as well, Milady,” Princess Elise smiled and turned to the pink haired maid who had been setting up (very carefully- Niles noted) while they talked. 

            “Thanks for the help, Felicia,” The maid bowed and quietly left the room with the last tray. As soon as the door closed, however, Niles heard a crash in the hallway. He gave the princess a look. She gave him a sheepish grin.

            “A bit clumsy, but she means well. Actually, that was her only fall today. I’ll have to do something for her,” With that, the princess reached for some food on the tray. While she did that, Niles had a thought.

            “Milady? Are you sure that it is alright for you to be here alone with me?”

            “Of course, it’s alright. Why wouldn’t it be?”

            “I’m an ex-criminal as of earlier today. Is it really safe for the princess to be alone in my room?”

            “Felicia and a guard are right outside the door. We’re fine,” With that, the princess started eating. Niles signed and finally looked to see what was on one of the trays. To his surprise, the tray contained an entire meal. He looked at the other ones.

            “Um Milady, I’m not sure if I can really eat all of this?”

            “No worries. Just eat what you want. When Camilla got her first retainer, she ate a lot of food. So I just brought three for you just in case.”

            “Camilla?”

            “My sister.”

            “Oh. Well thank you for the food,” Niles said before taking a bite out of some bread.

            “Don’t worry about it. So, what do you think?”

            “It’s delicious!” Niles answered happily. He may have what was on the second tray after all.

            “I wasn’t talking about the bread,” Princess Elise bit her lip before continuing, “Um, how are you holding up?” Niles thought for a moment.

            “I…don’t really know what to think about all this to be honest with you. This is all a bit sudden,” He finally said.

            “Oh…well…I will give you some things to know about my brother. I think it would be helpful to...what?” The princess was confused when Niles gave a light chuckle.

            “So that’s why you’re being nice to me? Are you concerned that I will not be able to take care of your brother?” The princess puffed her cheeks at this.

            “That- that’s not the case at all. This is all for your sake,” Niles was caught by surprise at this.

            “My sake, Milady?”

            “Yes it’s for your sake. For all I know, Leo may have wanted a retainer for…” Princess Elise looked sad.

            “For what?”

            “…Never mind. Just know that you may have some…difficulty with my brother at first. But don’t worry. I can give you some tips that should help you deal with him.”

            “…. Okay princess. I’m listening.”

            “Great,” Princess Elise smiled and cleared her throat, “So first I should talk about tomorrow. Just as a warning, you will probably be fitted for new clothing. Our tailor reeeeally does not like it when you don’t stand still, so be ready for that. Also, people will be paying attention to things like your posture to determine if you need etiquette classes. Now as for my brother, you should know that……”

            “Princess!!!!” Niles jumped as a woman in huge armor burst through the door of his room. Princess Elise turned towards her.

            “Oh hi Effie! I see you got my note.”

            “Of course I saw it. But what are you doing here? It’s the middle of the night.”

            “I just wanted to help out Leo’s new retainer,” Princess Elise said. Effie looked at Niles with a suspicious look.

            “Right. So is this him?”

            “Yup. I came by to give him some tips going forward,” Effie sat down next to Niles and faced him. Niles guessed that she was around the same age as the princess

            “Well in that case, I shall join you.”

            “You don’t need to do that. As you said, it’s late,” Effie shook her head.

            “Forgive me, Milady, but I have to disagree. As a retainer, I think I can give him some very valuable tips,” Princess Elise thought for a moment.

            “Hmm. You’re probably right. How about it, Niles? Are you alright with Effie staying here?” Even though he turned to look at the princess, Niles was pretty sure that Effie was staring holes into him. ‘No’ probably wasn’t the best answer right now.

            “That’s fine, Milady,” He responded.

            “Great. In that case, let’s begin,” Effie spent the next hour lecturing about how one should hold themselves while Princess Elise threw in some information about Prince Leo’s routine. By the time the two were finished talking, it was very late into the night.

            “I hope that will help some,” The princess said while the group cleaned up. They pushed the desk to be back where it was.

            “I think it’s more than enough Milady,” Niles said and sat back on his bed.

            “Okay. We’ll see tommorrow though. If it’s not enough though, just let me know.”

            “Hmm. A tempting offer. I’ll see if we can talk tomorrow night,” If Elise noticed Effie’s frown, she didn’t bring attention to it.

            “Sounds good….and Niles?”

            “Yes?” Elise grabbed Niles’ hand, “Um Milady. This is a bit forward, isn’t it?” Elise wasn’t looking at him though. Instead, she seemed to be considering something.

            “My brother…”-She shook her head- “You’re my brother’s first retainer. So he probably won’t be used to having someone accompany him yet. Just…please be patient with him.” 

            “Okay. I’ll try,” Elise looked relieved.

            “Great. You’ll do just fine then.”

            “So I passed the test?” Elise puffed up.

            “You still don’t trust me, do you?” She signed, but immediately followed it with a wink at him, “Oh well. One of these days you’ll trust me. I promise.” When Niles didn’t respond, she straightened out the long gown she had been wearing.

            “Well I need to go to bed. Have a good night, Niles,” As she turned to walk away though, Niles remembered something.

            “Milady. Here,” He took out the two brooches from his pocket and held them out. The princess looked shocked.

            “Ah! I’ve been wondering where those went. Thank you!” She went to grab the items, but was stopped by Effie.

            “Milady, I think I should hold onto them. They could have poison at the tips. I should check them just to be safe,” Ah. So Effie didn’t trust him.

            “Effie it’s okay. We trust him,” Elise insisted and reached for the brooches again. Niles shook his head though.

            “She’s right you know, Milady. You really shouldn’t trust someone you’ve met immediately. Though I guess you’re not wrong in this case,” With that, he stabbed both brooches into his arm. Elise yelped.

            “W-why did you do that?!” Effie demanded.

            “You wanted to check if the tips were poisoned, didn’t you? I figured that this would probably be the best way to find out,” Niles wiped off the brooches and held them out for Effie.

            “Well you’re not wrong, I guess,” She said as she went to take the items. However, Elise stopped her before she could actually do so.

            “Effie. Go get some things to wrapped Niles’ arm,” Elise commanded. Though Effie looked as if she wanted to say something, Elise’s stern gaze seemed to stop her. She left the room without another word, leaving the two alone. Elise turned to face Niles. She opened up her mouth to say something, but Niles interrupted her.

            “Milady, your retainer is correct to suspect me.”

            “…I know. I just wanted you to feel at home.”

            “While that’s very nice of you, it’s unwise to substitute your safety. You are the princess after all,” He said.

            “…Yeah,” Elise looked sad. The two stood in silence for a little while until Niles offered her the brooches. After thinking for a second, she put her hand up.

            “Keep them,” Niles gave her a confused look. “Think of it as a gift of friendship.”

            “…If you insist Milady.”

            “Okay then. Have a good night,” Elise headed for the door. “You’ll do great. I know it.”

            “Thank you again Milady. You have a good night as well,” Elise nodded and closed the door. Niles sat down and waited for Effie to come by and bring him a cloth. The retainer apparently felt sorry for him as she not only brought the cloth, but a nightshirt as well. After he was done, he put his clothes to the side and tried to get settle down in his bed. When he started to fall asleep, he thought about everything that Elise told him. She really did seem to have confidence in him.

            “Hmm. I guess it’s worth trying,” He said as he slowly fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah I kinda gave up a little at the end...
> 
> I probably won't update this for awhile. School is coming up, and there is another project that I really want to get started on (really excited for it ^.^). I'm also going to be trying a new method of updating, but that will take some time.
> 
> Once again, constructive criticism is appreciated. Thank you for reading.


End file.
